Jagow's "Developing the Complete Band Program" Chapters 6 - 11
Chapter 6
Tone quality is very important in any ensemble. Jagow lays out 5 basic factors that influence tone quality. 1. Directors concept of tone for each instrument, 2. Student’s concept of tone for their instrument, 3. Student’s ability to produce a characteristic tone, 4. Ensemble balance and blend, 5. Color and texture influenced by nature of repertoire. She also points out, that you cannot expect students to produce a characteristic tone that they have never heard before. This can be accomplished by cd’s, live performances – field trip possibilities, and demonstrations. She even suggests playing some recordings for a minute or two at the beginning of each rehearsal. Jagow is a huge advocate of practicing long tones so the students have a resonating fundamental that overtones can be produced from. If students don’t have a solid fundamental they will never produce a quality sound. Jagow also advocates audiation as a tool to help students produce a characteristic sound. Can the students aurally imagine the sound? If they can then they will have a much better shot playing what they can imagine. Begin with the end in mind, essentially. Have a goal, and think about achieving that goal, if you don’t have a destination your journey will never start.
Chapter 7
Balance and blend are two words used as much in a band classroom as any others. Yet, most do not know what all that encompasses. Blend is achieved when two tones merge with each other to create a unified sound. Balance is achieved when multiple sounds merge and compliment each other. This is impossible however is tone color is not unified throughout the band. When creating balance and blend in an ensemble the best way this can be achieved is to work from the bottom up. Thinking about the pyramid of sound, the lower voices should always be more prevalent and creating more sound, a fundamental foundation, for the upper voices. Also is the fundamental is not in tune, then the overtones of all the other instruments will not line up vertically and the sound will not be as powerful as it could be. To have a good pyramid of sound though, you first need to have the right instrumentation. To accomplish this the author suggests you have a 4 year plan and work for a 3:2(woodwind/brass) ratio for your wind ensemble and a 2:1(woodwind/brass) ratio for your concert bands. She also stresses that the clarinet choir is the foundation of a concert band, basically the string section of a orchestra. Jagow also goes into a ton of detail about students switching instrument and what students should do better where. She also suggests that players switch parts in a rotation so the 3rd trumpets don’t always feel like they have a lesser part then the firsts.
Chapter 8
Jagow states that when intonation is a factor, until students achieve a consistent and characteristic tone on their instrument intonation should not be a performance concern. However when they become more advanced in their playing the issue can be addressed. The five properties of sound as stated by Garofalo are pitch, intensity, timbre, duration, and direction. After students have some grasp of what intonation is then they should experiment with their embouchure, air speed, and alternate fingerings to see how these factors affect pitch. When tuning an ensemble and addressing intonation with a major chord the root should always use a tuner for perfect accuracy. Other instruments can also use tuners, but for major thirds they should be 14 cents flat, minor thirds should be 16 cents sharp, and perfect 5ths must be 2 cents sharp. If you can have students also listen for beats in the sound this will be a very effective way for them to hone their aural skills. Tune your ensemble to Bb and F. Bb is good for the most of the ensemble and works well with most of the instruments natural ranges. You should also use an F for the horns and this will also assist the clarinets in their tuning. Singing is with your orchestra is a tried and true way of teaching your students almost anything about music, be it style, intonation, rhythms, or balance and blend, every level of ensemble sings. Giving your students opportunities to perform in chamber ensembles also help students with their personal playing as well. They are forced to listen and be critical of their own playing since it is usually one on a part; they have no choice but to be correct stylistically. The warm-up of the ensemble is also very important; the warm up should be 50% physical/50% mental. You should always warm up the brain as well as your playing chops for great music making to occur.
Chapter 9
If you really want your ensemble to be great, the ensemble as a whole must have an excellent sense of pulse and beat. The beat is something a conductor gives the band, they don’t even really have to think about this information. However the pulse is something different, the pulse is what is a felt rhythmic idea that provides emotion and direction for the ensemble. Bands without a rhythmic pulse will never play with rhythmic precision. If a band has a great pulse then tempo will hardly ever be a problem. The conductor also needs to sensitize the ensemble to their conducting; learning a conductors tendencies and nuance can help a ensemble tremendously. Students should also have a pencil for rehearsal and the conductor should always make that student use it! The more info a student has the more they can remember what they played in rehearsal last time so the conductor won’t have to back track.
Chapter 10
Chapter 10 goes into many different learning theories for teaching rhythm and duration. Jagow suggests that the conductor have the student tap their toe inside their shoe, this will still provide time, but not be noticeable to the audience.
Chapter 11
Jagow goes into many ways to teaching pulse and rhythms; vocalization is a suggested way to accomplish this task of difficult rhythms in some cases. The conductor should always try to relate the information the student is trying to learn with something they already know. Also students should realize that silence is a very important part of music making. Silence should not be taught as “where the sound ends”, but rather a continuation of the music, this would also help with flow.
Reaction
Chapter 6-11 had a ton of useful information all in one place I’m sure I will use in the future as an educator. The authors approach to tone quality is one that I have seen parts on in different ensembles I have been in, I really think the ability of students to see live performances and be able to audiate what they want to play will be a huge tool as well. I have always heard of the pyramid of sound and Jagow just confirms some of my ideas about what an ensemble should strive for then trying to create a tasteful balance. I really like the tables of instrument transfer suggestions; this will be very helpful as well. I was glad to learn about the tendencies of 3rds and 5ths, as a percussionist this isn’t addressed very much, and even since timpani is usually a part of the fundamental, it is still not encountered much. I also really believe in Jagow’s suggestion of chamber music as a way to grow an ensemble from the inside out, developing individual responsibility is a huge asset to any band program. Great bands listen and move together when playing music, this is because they have a great sense of pulse. Developing pulse with your band and allowing the music to flow seamlessly is a huge undertaking, but must be done for music making to be achieved at the highest level. How you achieve this can be done many ways, but a quick way when time is important is to allow students to tap their tow inside their shoe, musicians of every level have done this, and it gives a sense of security to the student. Silence is important in music. Dr. Caneva talks about this everyday in wind ensemble, for great music to take place silence must be used as a music element, it must be silent for the music to begin and silence lingers when the music disappears into silence.